When a natural or man-made catastrophe occurs, such as an earthquake or explosion, a critical task for rescue teams is to find victims affected by the catastrophe within the shortest period of time as possible, e.g. the first 24 hours which is the so-called ‘golden day’ during which the majority of survivors from the catastrophe can usually be saved. Very often, after such a catastrophe, victims are buried or trapped under rubble and debris and cannot be found. Rescue teams have traditionally relied on the use of dogs to locate such victims. Increasingly, rescue teams also make use of technology such as highly sensitive listening devices and ground probing radar to help locate victims. However, even with this technology it remains very difficult to locate victims across an entire area affected by a catastrophe, particularly within 24 hours of the catastrophe occurring.
It is therefore desirable to more easily identify a location of victims buried under rubble and debris after a catastrophic event.